Tech giants start by disassembling systems

Chapter 15 Numbers Can Talk

Xiao Zhao pointed to the price tag on the tent.

"Hongyuan Flyer F2 Working Edition, nationwide uniform price 1999 yuan. Two spare batteries and a carrying bag are included as a free gift."

"1999?" The middle-aged photographer was somewhat incredulous. "Is that really the price? Isn't there some kind of installment plan with a bunch of additional fees?"

"Fixed price, unchanged. And we offer a seven-day no-questions-asked return policy."

"Give me one!" The middle-aged photographer was the first to turn around and walk towards the tent.

Three or four more people followed behind him.

The lighting technician with no experience reluctantly handed the remote control back to Xiao Wu, then jogged off to buy one himself.

"Just for this amazing speed, it's worth the two thousand dollars!" he said, turning back as he left.

This is just one location in Huizhou.

Su Chen's strategy was never a single-point breakthrough, but a comprehensive rollout.

While the F2 working version product was being finalized, he began to assemble a ground sales team.

Hongyuan originally had no ground sales staff, so Su Chen recruited twenty people from scratch, and together with four veteran salespeople transferred from Meng Xiaoyi's original team, they formed eight three-person teams.

Each team consists of three people: a salesperson, a operator, and an assistant.

The eight teams were dispatched to second- and third-tier cities and counties in five provinces: Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Fujian. Target locations included photography equipment markets, wedding expos, building materials markets, and the entrances of real estate sales centers.

The process is the same everywhere: set up tents → live flight demonstration → hands-on experience for beginners with no prior experience → on-the-spot transaction.

The results of this process far exceeded Su Chen's expectations.

The Flyer F2 working version has a killer feature that none of its competitors in the same price range possesses—its flight control stability is brought about by the flight control firmware that Su Chen specially customized for the Hongyuan hardware platform after studying the DJI Phantom 4 through a virtual disassembly lab.

Drones in the same price range use general flight control solutions, and their flight quality is not in the same league as the F2.

This is the technological barrier.

Other drones in the 2,000 yuan price range on the market, even if they wanted to, couldn't – because they didn't have Su Chen's flight control firmware.

In the first week after the on-the-ground promotion started, the eight groups sold a total of thirty-two units.

The second week, 79 stations.

Week 3, 137 units.

A total of 248 units were produced over three weeks.

Sales figures show a clear upward trend – this is the power of word-of-mouth. The first batch of wedding photographers and real estate agents who bought the F2 working version started posting their aerial photography works on social media. Their colleagues saw this, inquired about it, and then joined the buying frenzy.

Su Chen sat in his office, looking at the sales summary for the past three weeks that Zhou Ming had compiled.

Two hundred and forty-eight units were sold at a uniform national price of 1999 yuan, generating a total revenue of 499,700 yuan.

The hardware cost is about 930 yuan per unit. With the addition of assembly labor, quality control, logistics and on-the-ground sales team costs, the total cost per unit is about 1,100 yuan.

In other words, the gross profit for each F2 working version sold is approximately 900 yuan.

Total gross profit over three weeks: approximately 220,000 yuan.

After deducting fixed expenses—worker wages, field sales team salaries, rent, utilities, and management salaries—the net profit for three weeks is approximately 130,000.

This number isn't astonishing, but what Su Chen sees isn't the present, but the trend.

The first week saw 32 units, and the third week saw 137 units—more than a fourfold increase in three weeks.

If this growth trend continues, weekly sales could exceed 300 units next month.

And this is only the result of eight groups and five provinces.

If we expand to fifteen groups, covering ten provinces—and this only covers South and Central China—then breaking the 1,000-unit monthly sales mark is not just wishful thinking.

Selling 1,000 units per month would yield a gross profit of 900,000.

More importantly, there are almost no competitors in this market.

DJI doesn't care about this market—their cheapest Phantom Standard Edition costs 2999 yuan, and their strategic focus is on the professional and consumer upgrade markets, so they have no intention of competing for small business customers in third- and fourth-tier cities.

Other competitors are even worse—they lack flight control technology barriers, and their products priced at two thousand yuan simply cannot compare to the F2 working version in terms of flight quality.

Su Chen glanced at the inventory data again.

Currently, there are only about thirty F2 workpieces left in stock. All three assembly lines are operating at full capacity, with a daily production capacity of approximately twenty-five units.

Production capacity can no longer keep up with demand.

Moreover, the system's "industry benefit halo" played a significant role at this time—the assembly yield rate increased by 10%, which means that under normal circumstances, three to five out of every hundred units would become defective due to assembly problems, but this was almost non-existent in Hongyuan's factory.

The cost of spare parts for each drone is over 900 yuan. Every defective product saved is real profit.

Roughly estimated, the improved yield rate brought about by the system gain is equivalent to saving an additional 30 to 50 yuan in loss costs per drone.

Thirty yuan per unit may not seem like much, but when production accumulates to one thousand or ten thousand units, that's a net profit of thirty thousand or three hundred thousand yuan.

This only considers the yield rate. The improved work efficiency and enhanced employee teamwork brought about by system gains, which are difficult to quantify, also create value for the company in subtle ways.

Su Chen closed his laptop.

The most urgent task is to expand production.